Sixty years after the end of World War II, Japan has attained a high level of affluence and convenience. On the other side of the coin, though, concern is spreading about the safety of our daily lives.
Japan for a long time was described as the safest country in the world in terms of public order, but in a survey conducted by the Ministry of Justice last year, three of every four respondents replied that public order is in decline.
There are two main reasons for this. The first is the increase in the number of crimes. The crime-incidence rate (the number of police-recognized criminal offenses per 100,000 population) continued on a downward trend following the period of confusion after the end of World War II, but it has been on the rise since the mid-1970s.